


The Prince of Fire

by Maggie1967



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Eventual Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, M/M, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are Parents, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 15:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17900585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggie1967/pseuds/Maggie1967
Summary: It's John's 50th birthday and all he wants is to get drunk by the fire with Sherlock and for Sherlock to read him a story.





	1. As You Wish

The Prince of Fire 

Chapter 1 - As you wish

John sunk into his worn and tattered chair.Next to him, the fire crackled and roared.He watched the flames dancing and gliding against the blackness.He watched until his eyes grew heavy. As he began nodding off to sleep, the sound of Sherlock approaching him, was enough to bring him back from his dreams and into their sitting room.

“John ….I think you should consider going to bed.Use your night without Rosie to get some rest.”

John sat up defiantly and fixed his eyes on Sherlock with a determined glare.

“Absolutely not.It is half seven on a Friday night.I am sitting here with you and getting drunk.It’s what I said we’d do, so it’s going to happen.It’s my birthday and it’s what I want to do.”

Sherlock warmly smiled at the man in front of him who was now pouring them both a generous amount of whiskey into two glasses.He hesitated on his next words before finally deciding to voice them.

“John ….John, you’re not past it.You do know that?Reaching 50 is not…”

“Trust bloody you to think tonight is some sort of mid life crisis, Sherlock.Look, it’s my birthday and I just want to spend it getting drunk with you.Now can we please get started on that.”

“Of course John.As you wish.”

Sherlock lifted the glass that John poured for him and swirled the golden liquid a few times before lifting it to his lips and swallowing it whole.He stuck out his hand and wordlessly requested that his glass be replenished.John was only too happy to oblige. Five empty glasses later and Sherlock was still perceptive enough to notice the sticky notes and pen sitting next to John’s feet.

“John, I don’t want to be Madonna tonight.If you insist on us playing a game can it be something else?”

John chuckled a little before finally deciding on the activity of the night.

“Tell me a story, Sherlock.I’m sick of being the storyteller.Always telling the stories about our adventures together and reading Rosie bed time stories.Just once, I want to remember what it’s like to have someone tell me a story.”

“Tedious.”

“It’s my birthday.”

“So you keep saying. Just so we are clear, in four and a half hours, we go back to indulging my every whim for the other 364 days in this year.Agreed?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. There is one story I haven’t deleted from my mind palace.My mother used to tell me this particular story on stormy nights like this one.We would get a big blanket and she would insist that we snuggle next to the fire with hot chocolate. She would get the old dusty book down from the top shelf in my room and read from it.”

“Don’t you need the book.”

“I remember it well enough.”

“What’s the story called?”

“The Prince of Fire”

“Sounds like a Kevin Costner film.”

“I don’t know who that is, John.Is that Madonna’s husband?”

John choked on the whiskey that was soothingly sliding down his throat until that point of the conversation.He was half heaving and half hoarsely giggling, whilst a frustrated and exasperated Sherlock looked on in annoyance.

“Do you want me to tell you this story, or not?”

John finished wiping the tears from his mirthful eyes and leaned across the space between them.He reached for Sherlock’s hand, which Sherlock willingly gave, then patted it soothingly.

“You’re utterly brilliant, you daft git .You’ve no clue just how funny you are, especially when you are not even trying to be.I haven’t laughed like that in ages.I really needed to laugh like that tonight.It’s just you, Sherlock.You can pull that out of me like nobody else can.That’s why we are here tonight.Sitting alone on these chairs getting drunk together.It’s not because I’m having a mid life crisis or I’m brooding about being a single 50 year old father to a young girl.It’s none of that.It’s because I can’t think of one other place that I’d rather be, tonight or any night, that’s not sitting here, next to this fire, by your side.My mad and bloody brilliant partner in crime.”

John squeezed his friends hand and Sherlock noted that there was now an unguarded and somewhat passionate warmth in his friend’s glazed eyes. Sherlock believed this must now be mirrored in his own gaze. Such was the feelings bubbling to his surface, feelings stirred by the loving and affectionate words he had been gifted from his friend.It scared Sherlock. Scared him that this fascinating and idiotic man in front of him could unknowingly elicit such feeling from the depths of Sherlock’s soul.Images of the stag night fleetingly burst forth into his mind.Dangerous territory.He gruffly spoke whilst quickly pulling his hand away from the danger in front of him.

“Story…John…you wanted me to tell you a story ….”

John looked quizzically at Sherlock before managing to successfully regain some of his emotionally repressed self. Less dangerous, Sherlock thought.Safer territory.The doctor leaned back in his chair and silently motioned with his hand for Sherlock to begin the tale.

 

“As you wish John.Always, as you wish…..”


	2. The Prince and the Warrior

"Story...John...you wanted me to tell you a story ...."

The doctor leaned back in his chair and silently motioned with his hand for Sherlock to begin the tale.

'There was once and incredibly rich, beautiful, and wise Prince. Tired of idiots and false suitors who were only interested in him for the wrong reasons, the Prince announced that he would live out his days alone and never be married. This Prince lived happily secluded in a tower with only one servant for company. Occasionally, his wicked stepbrother would interfere in his business and check to make sure that the Prince was refraining from making recreational magic potions in his personal laboratory.'

John giggled and swirled his whiskey as he did so.

"You're mum did not tell you that story, Sherlock. You are making it up."

"I've adapted it."

"Ahhhh ha! So you couldn't remember it without the book."

"I remember the salient points, however if you would rather we stop?"

"No...no...continue."

"Very well....."

'One day, when the Prince ventured out of his tower to the forest of St. Barts, he met a Knight called Staningford, who was travelling with a fearless young warrior. Sir Stanford told the Prince that the warrior was alone in a new land and needed somewhere to stay. The Prince (who was growing tired of being alone himself) felt unexplainably connected to the warrior and so agreed to let him live and work beside him in the tower.

One night, as the warrior and the Prince sat together by a roaring fire, the warrior offered the Prince a most curious gift as a thank you for allowing him to stay. He offered him a pebble, a simple dirty pebble. When the Prince asked why the warrior had chosen to give him the gift of a pebble, He explained it to him like this,

This is a magical pebble. When it softens it will transform into the most powerful force on earth. Whoever solves the mystery of the pebble and transforms it, will hold a great treasure in their hands. I give this pebble to you as my gift, in the hope that you might be wise enough to transform it.

The warrior quietly vacated the room, leaving the Prince both surprised and captivated by the mystery that he now held in his hands.

The Prince continued to be fascinated by the pebble and he took the little pebble with him wherever he went. The Prince was so thankful for the gift of this magical pebble, and for the warriors loyalty and companionship, that from that day on, he made sure to regale the warrior with all of his attention. He also made a vow to be the warriors protector, just like the warrior protected him. So their life together went on. It was filled with adventures, and yet...

The pebble remained hard as stone in the Prince's hands. Try as he might, he couldn't get it to transform.

The Prince finally decided to take the pebble to a wizard to see if he might be able to solve it's mysteries. The wizard saw the value of the pebble and wanted it for himself. He knew (if allowed to grow and transform) that the pebble would be powerful enough to defeat him and his dark ways. So the wizard tricked the Prince. He told him that unless the pebble was transformed before the end of that very day, it would kill the person who he received it from. Shocked at this news, and determined to save the warrior at all costs, the Prince was willing to do whatever the evil wizard told him to do. So the evil wizard told him to climb the highest tree in the forest of St. Bart's and throw himself to the ground in order to save his warrior friend. Only this would make the pebble transform and ultimately save the warrior who he vowed to protect at all costs. Losing hope, the Prince did indeed climb a tall tree in the forest of St Bart's but just before he threw himself from the tree, the pebble slipped from his hands and fell onto the ground instead.

The warrior (hearing that the wizard had told the Prince to risk his life in such a manner) raced to the tree . He got there just as the Prince reached the top.

The warrior could do nothing but watch the Prince in desperation. The warrior was relieved when the pebble and not the Prince, fell from the great height of St.Bart's to the forest floor below. The stone snapped into two pieces upon impact. Both the Prince and the Warrior instantaneously were threw to different parts of the land.  
Each were left with one half of the stone. Each were separated. Each would have a long and lonely journey back to each other and their home...

The wizard who had set up this evil plan to destroy the Prince and steal his pebble, had not anticipated that it would fall instead and split in two. He deemed it broken and of no value. In his anger he used his magic to separate the Prince and the warrior.It would be the Prince's punishment for destroying the stone. The wizard,in turn, was also thrown to a darkness from which he could never return.

This was of no comfort to the Prince and the Warrior though, who now would have to find their way back to one another. For many long and difficult years they wandered aimlessly alone, finding themself in many difficult situations along the way. Each having their own demons to face and defeat. Throughout it all, they kept their half of the pebble safe and next to their breast.

Against all the odds, the Prince and the Warrior eventually did make it back to the tower and to each other.

They soon fell back into their comfortable routine of working together during the day and sitting with one another at the fire at night. On one of these occasions, the Prince ( not being able to stand a mystery that he could not solve) pulled the stone from his pocket and asked the warrior why he couldn't transform it. The warrior pulled his half of the stone from his pocket and clasped it in his hands. It was then, and only then, that the warrior finally revealed the secret of the pebble to the Prince.

"This stone was one, but your actions made it two. We each have ended up owning a piece of this stone. To transform it, we each must take responsibility for the part we now have. It had chosen to join us back together the very moment you dropped it from the great height. So you must ask yourself why you did that. The answer to that will soften and transform your half of the stone before us."

The Prince revealed that he, and not the stone, was meant to drop from the great height in order to save the friend that he loved. To unlock the mystery of the pebble he would have to be brave and tell the warrior this. So he did. The Prince rubbed it around in his hand, fully expecting it to transform but nothing happened. He looked to the warrior who sat smiling before him.

"The stone you sit clasping in your hands is half of the the same dirty pebble that I gave you at the beginning of our adventures together. It is not the pebble which transforms but the person who holds it precious to their heart. The pebble is merely a symbol of selfless love and friendship. A love and friendship which you now have for me. A love and friendship which has gradually softened and transformed you within. You have been transformed and because of that so have I. Each part of these stones on their own are powerless, they are truly nothing, but when they are joined, they becomes an unbeatable force which nothing in this world can either separate or destroy. That is the stones true power."

The Prince, though terrified of the these strange new feelings in his heart, bravely met the warriors gaze. He understood what he must do with the pebble. Still unsure but finally willing to risk everything, the Prince spoke softly to his warrior.

"My half of the stone represents my heart, which you alone have transformed.I now give my half of the stone to you as my gift for your friendship. I hand you my heart tonight. Do with it as you please, because it's yours...you own it now"

During the following months the Prince set about changing who he was into someone that he truly wanted to be. He devoted his life and his wisdom to separating what is truly valuable from what is unimportant. He completely gave up his loneliness and some of the self centred and selfish actions of his previous life. He did this to focus on the things and people that truly mattered to him. So many people came away from their interaction with the Prince enchanted by his new character. His mere presence now transmitted such human warmth that they started to call him 'The Prince of Fire'.

The End

"John, do you require more alcohol or would you prefer a cup of tea before retiring to bed for the night?"

"Wow...wait a minute Sherlock...That seems a bloody strange way to end this story.What did the warrior do with his half of the pebble? You said the prince was transformed into a better person because he gave the warrior his heart but what did the warrior do when the Prince gave him it? Don't try and tell Rosie that story because she'll pull the place around about her at bed time to find out what the warrior had to say!"

"Well, she'd have to use her imagination John, because I don't know."

"You don't know what, Sherlock?"

"I don't know what the warrior's response would be! I only know what the Prince would say.....how he feels about the warrior."

"You don't know how the warrior feels? You really don't know?"

" No...I don't."

"All that sodding intelligence coupled with your super powers of deduction and yet you....I thought you ....but you had no ....you never saw...ohhhh that's about right though...that just makes about as much sense...all this time I was thinking that you worked it out and chose to just ignore my feeli...stupid git....stupid gits actually...a story...it's all came tumbling out in a drunken fairy story....

John laughed and shook his head in disbelief. Sherlock's eyes narrowed and shot and icy glare across the short and heated space between them.

"I'm glad you've been entertained John, but your birthday is over, therefore so is your source of amusement for the night. Goodnight John..."

"No...Sherlock..this story isn't finished yet...sit down....SIT!"

John shakily rose from his chair and moved slowly along the floor on his knees until he was resting between his friends legs. He clasped The detective's trembling thighs in his hands and hoisted himself up until they were eye level. When he spoke, he chose to do so by leaning and whispering into the crook of his friend's neck.

"You might not know what the warrior's reply would be but I do, so I want you to look into my eyes when I tell you it, okay? Sherlock...look at me...please..."

John cautiously lifted his hand and gently stroked Sherlock's temple until he faced his friend and mirrored his gaze.

"The Warrior joyfully accepted the Prince's half of the pebble and then handed his dear Prince the half of the pebble that he himself owned. He told the Prince that his friendship and love wholeheartedly belonged to the Prince too. That it always had and always will. He entrusted half of the pebble, his heart and soul, to the Prince. He did so the moment he met him. He was just waiting for the Prince to notice and to finally see how in love the warrior is with him."

"John....you don't have to pretend..."

"Shut up and listen to me...I'm in love with you, you daft sod! Now in all these bloody stories that Rosie makes me read, there is normally a kiss at the end. Do these characters kiss in your story? Do they enjoy kissing? If they dont, it's okay.It's all fine..."

"Sherlock cut John off by pulling him up into his lap, cupping his face and crashing their lips together in a heated embrace. When they finally broke apart, Sherlock gasped for air as he spoke."

"John...the characters in my story do more than kiss..."

"More than...when you say more than...."

As if to prove his point, he reached for John's hand and placed it between his legs...

"Ohhhh..you mean...I mean..do you mean?"

"sex....lots of it. Every room of the castle. Every position imaginable. Several times a day."

"Right. Well definitely not allowed to retell this part of the story to Rosie then. It needs to end at the kiss in front of the fire."

" As you wish, my warrior....as you wish."


End file.
